It can be argued that a significant difference exists between an original piece of art and mechanical reproductions. Water Benjamin argues in his theory of the aura that creating original pieces of art is a spiritual and ritualistic experience that embodies the fourth dimension of time and space. Creating and seeing a piece of art in person is a multi-sensory experience. This reflects an aura of its being. It is strongest in person when being able to see the original artwork. The earliest artworks were used for ritualistic purposes, which created a cult value for the piece. The mystification of art adds to the aura of the artwork. It is like energy pulsating from combining materials, creative thought, time, and space. It is a testament to its authenticity and historical and artistic tradition. The authenticity of a thing is the “quintessence of all that is transmissible in it from its origin on, ranging from its physical duration to the historical testimony relating to it,” and reproduction threatens the historical testimony that gives authority to the object (Benjamin, 2008, p.21).
Art reproduction isn’t new.
Since the creation of printmaking, such as woodblock prints and lithography,
artists have been creating prints of the original. Then, through photography
and film, the distance increases from ritual into a new existence. Benjamin
argues that the reproduction of work changes the context of the artwork. It diminishes
ritualism and replaces it with a subject meant for reproduction. Benjamin
believes that this cheapens artwork and turns it into a distraction and a form
of entertainment. There is little magic and destruction of tradition. With
photography and film, they destroy traditions but reinvent a way to examine the
world. The camera can capture details that our eyes miss down to milliseconds.
This creates a “zero-aura artwork: artwork for, by, and of the masses” (Zair, 2010,
p.3). Photography and film are a strange mix that still has traces of aura.
In the article “Aura, Auteurism, And the Key to
Reserva” by Kartik Nair, he uses the Martin Scorsese film “The Key to Reserva”
as an example of aura in film. “The Key to Reserva” is Alfred Hitchcock's
three-and-a-half-page unfilmed and unfinished script that Scorsese wanted to
film to channel Hitchcock into the work. Nair states that the “script
resonates with the ‘complex temporality’ of aura: a belatedly discovered
message from a lost time, a kind of revelation before the plunge into oblivion”
(2010, p.14). The reinvention of a dead and iconic film director ties into the
mystification of the aura. To add to the effect, Scorsese directs it but tries
to eliminate any of his persona from the film. Still, in the end, it is his
film, but the combination creates an aura of mystique and allure.
The Key to Reserva (2007) Martin Scorcesse
References
Benjamin, W. (2008). 'The Work of Art in the Age of
Its Technological Reproducibility (2nd ed.). The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press. https://monoskop.org/images/6/6d/Benjamin_Walter_1936_2008_The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Its_Technological_Reproducibility_Second_Version.pdf
[Everything is Cinema]. (2021, January 1). The Key To Reserva | Martin Scorsese's Tribute to Alfred Hitchcock | Rare Moments Of Martin Scorsese [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjQrDn1IR0Q
Nair, K. (2010). Aura, Auteurism and the Key to Reserva. Wide Screen, 1(2), 1–19.
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